Bobby Heenan
In 1984, Vince McMahon lured Heenan away from the AWA to manage Jesse "The Body" Ventura; however, after Ventura developed blood clots in his lungs, he was forced to end his active wrestling career. Heenan instead became Big John Studd's manager for his feud with André the Giant, and he soon reformed the Heenan Family. Over Heenan's WWF career, the Heenan Family included Studd, Ken Patera, "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff, King Kong Bundy, André the Giant, High Chief Sivi Afi, The Brain Busters (former Horsemen members Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard), "Ravishing" Rick Rude, Harley Race, The Islanders (Haku and Tama), Hercules, The Barbarian, Mr Perfect, Terry Taylor, and The Brooklyn Brawler. As a manager, he was always one of the most hated men, often the most hated man, in the promotion. Heenan once had a famous feud with André the Giant while managing Big John Studd, and famously challenged André to a $15,000 bodyslam match against Studd at the first WrestleMania, where André had to retire from wrestling if he had lost the match. Heenan and the Heenan Family had a monumental feud with wrestling icon Hulk Hogan in the '80s, and Heenan managed two WrestleMania challengers to Hogan's title, King Kong Bundy in 1986, and André the Giant in 1987. André did not win the title at that time, but later bested Hogan for the championship in 1988 in a controversial win after he aligned himself with "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. Heenan also had a famous feud with The Ultimate Warrior, who reintroduced Heenan to Weasel Suit matches, which Heenan had during his time in the AWA. After being derided by announcers for his first five years in the WWF (mostly by Gorilla Monsoon) for never managing a champion, WrestleMania V was promoted (mostly by Jesse Ventura and later Gorilla Monsoon) as Heenan's quest, and best chance since WMIII to manage a champion. Heenan finally managed his first champion in the WWF when "Ravishing" Rick Rude upset the Ultimate Warrior for the Intercontinental title. Shortly thereafter, he led the Brain Busters to the WWF World Tag Team championship giving Heenan not only the gratification of managing a champion, but managing two champions at the same time. A few months later, he lead Colossal Connection (André and Haku) to the WWF Tag Team Championship. A few months after that, he lead Mr Perfect to the first of two the Intercontinental Championships. In a year and a half, Heenan went from having managed no champions to having managed two World Tag Team champions and three Intercontinental champions. Bobby Heenan once also had a parody talk show known as The Bobby Heenan Show, which was seen in four segments during the WWF's regular weekly program. It was co-hosted by Jameson Winger and featured the very overweight women known as The Oinkettes.. As neck injuries prevented him from taking bumps the way he used to, Heenan retired from managing in 1991 to become a full-time "broadcast journalist" (see below). Nonetheless, Heenan crossed the line to managing sporadically. When the WWF signed Ric Flair, Heenan spent several weeks talking him up as "The Real World's Heavyweight Champion" (then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion) due to Flair's no compete contract with WCW. He continued to act as an advisor to Flair during his first WWF run (and coined the phrase, "That's not fair to Flair" and "You got to be fair to Flair"). At the 1993 Royal Rumble, he introduced "Narcissist" Lex Luger to the WWF to exact revenge on his former protege, Mr Perfect. In 1994, Heenan joined WCW as a full-time commentator. He served as color commentator on WCW flagship shows Monday Nitro and Thunder, as well as the Clash of the Champions specials and many pay-per-views. Heenan was largely uninspired in WCW due to the negative work environment, which he would later describe as night and day compared to the WWF, and due to the fact that he was informed, in not such a nice way, that as a commentator the company didn't need his input on ideas or storylines (in particular by Eric Bischoff). In 1995, after 12 years of suffering in pain, Heenan was able to have surgery on his broken neck. Heenan made one brief return to ringside at the 1996 edition of the Great American Bash, leading Ric Flair and Arn Anderson to victory over Steve McMichael and Kevin Greene and also successfully conspiring with Anderson and Flair to bring McMichael into the fold. Starting in late January 2000, WCW replaced Heenan on Monday Nitro and pay-per-view events with Mark Madden. Heenan would continue to commentate on Thunder along with Mike Tenay until April 2000. The two would then be joined by Tony Schiavone in April 2000. Heenan would then be replaced by Stevie Ray beginning in August 2000 on Thunder. Heenan would then only be seen with Scott Hudson on World Wide until he was released by WCW in November 2000.